[buckdog05]

I just reinstalled Windows XP on a HP Pavilon a1250n desktop computer using a copy of Windows XP Professional issued from a university bookstore rather than from the restore disks because I replaced the hard drive and recovery disks were not when Windows was previously installed on the computer.

The install went fine, but the hard drive in the computer shows up as the "I" drive. This doesn't seem like it will be a problem, but when I try to install any of the driver files from HP, I get an error that says "you must be logged in as an administrator to install this update." I am logged in as an administrator, and am using an administrator account separate from the built-in "administrator" account.

I am thinking that this is an issue with the hard drive showing up as "I" from what I read here: http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-...all-update.html
but I don't know how to force Windows to install to the "C" Drive rather than the "I" drive besides disconecting the media card readers in front of the computer while installing Windows XP on the computer.

Other programs such as Firefox install without a problem on the computer.

Any suggestions to get the drivers installed? I tried doing it through the Device Manager, but Windows Update couldn't find drivers, and I don't know where the temporary location is that HP extracts the exe's containing the drivers files in so I can manually point the device manager to these files. This information might help me to fix the problem.

Thanks!

[Ponch]

From previous discussions on the same problem, it appears you are better off in the long run reinstalling Windows, this time making sure it installs to C: drive.

[uid0]

You could try removing the drive letter c:, then

subst c: i:

then run the installers from "c:"
Might work, might not...

[buckdog05]

Ponch, on Jun 25 2009, 03:09 AM, said:

From previous discussions on the same problem, it appears you are better off in the long run reinstalling Windows, this time making sure it installs to C: drive.

How do you do this?

[uid0]

You could make a migrate.inf, and add that to your install media.
e.g.

[Version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"

[Addreg]
HKLM,"SYSTEM\MountedDevices","\DosDevices\C:",0x00030001,\
CC,CC,CC,CC,00,7E,00,00,00,00,00,00
;where CCCCCCCC is the disk sig, bytes 440 to 443 of mbr
;00,7E,00,00,00,00 is 32,256 = 63x512

[Ponch]

You probably have a card reader that takes the 1st four letters, then 2 optical drives or maybe an other HDD. The easiest way is to physically unplug the card reader before installation. Elegant way is to fiddle with Bios settings (HP ) until you get what you want.